


Reincarnation

by Isimile



Series: Marvel Bingo 2019 [13]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Marvel Bingo 2019, Odin's A+ Parenting, Pre-Slash, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:46:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21722449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isimile/pseuds/Isimile
Summary: “Have you told him?” Loki asked, startling Thor. He’d gone to the room he’d claimed for himself on the ship, thinking he’d be alone there. He shouldn’t be surprised Loki showed up when he least expected it.“Told whom what?” he asked.“Don’t play dumb,” Loki said sharply. He continued, voice softer again: “I might not have been thinking clearly, the last time I was not Midgard, not with Him in my head, but I can see it now. Banner. He’s Aelffrith.”Thor knows that Bruce is his friend's reincarnation but how can he tell him when he's already struggling with being Bruce and the Hulk?
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Thor, Loki & Thor (Marvel)
Series: Marvel Bingo 2019 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1498214
Kudos: 50
Collections: Marvel Bingo 2019





	Reincarnation

“Have you told him?” Loki asked, startling Thor. He’d gone to the room he’d claimed for himself on the ship, thinking he’d be alone there. He shouldn’t be surprised Loki showed up when he least expected it.

“Told whom what?” he asked.

“Don’t play dumb,” Loki said sharply. He continued, voice softer again: “I might not have been thinking clearly, the last time I was not Midgard, not with Him in my head, but I can see it now. Banner. He’s Aelffrith.”

“Don’t tell him!” Thor ordered. Then, remembering who he was talking to, he added: “Please, don’t. He’s... he’s struggling enough with the duality of the Hulk and people always wanting one of them over the other. With himself not really knowing who he really is now. Knowing that he’s a reincarnated Asgardian...” He shook his head. “I can’t do that to him.”

Loki frowned. He’d have liked Thor to show at least a little bit of that insight when he had learned about being adopted, being a Frostgiant, but at least Thor seemed to start seeing it now. “Very well, I will not tell him.” He sat down on the bed beside Thor, close enough for their shoulders to touch. “Are we travelling to Midgard? Banner will want to go there and we should warn them about the threat to the Infinity Stones.”

Thor bit back a smile. It was nice to have his brother back by his side.

~*~

“Good morning, Thor,” Bruce greeted him when he came to breakfast, smiling brightly at him.

Thor was helpless to do anything but smile back. “Banner. Good morning.” He barely nodded to Heimdall, Loki and Valkyrie.

“Bruce, Thor, you can call me Bruce.”

“Bruce, yes.” Thor tried to kick Loki when he saw him roll his eyes had him, unsurprised that he missed.

“I was just telling them that I hadn’t realized what an amazing storyteller you are,” Bruce said. “I barely got a glance at Asgard but it still felt familiar.”

“It did?” Thor asked. He forced himself not to meet Loki’s eyes. “Then I hope you will tell our team mates the same the next time they doubt me.”

“Oh, definitely.”

Thor kept his eyes on the food on his plate. “Do you have plans for today? I could tell you some more.”

“I promised to assist some of your healers this morning, so I’m afraid I have to go soon. Do you have time for lunch together? Perhaps I’ll have time afterwards.”

“Sounds good.”

Brunhild watched them, frowning slightly but decided to wait for now. Instead she noted the way Thor avoided meeting Loki’s eyes and the way Heimdall kept looking between Thor and Banner. When Banner had left, she finally asked: “What is going on?”

“He’s a reborn Asgardian,” Thor explained. “Aelffrith. I knew him centuries ago, when I was younger.” He smiled sadly. “He was a scholar, even then. We met when I was learning languages, the language of Flora Colossus if I remember right. Surprisingly enough, we hit it off. I hadn’t expected it. I mean, I usually spent most of my time with the other warriors training. But Aelffrith and I... Time we could spend together was special, precious. I...” He trailed off.

“Were the two of you...?”

“Not yet. I mean, we were both quite young yet but in time, yes, probably.” He closed his eyes, looking pained. “But something happened. An accident. I never really learned what exactly. Father just told me that he... that he’d died.”

“You asked Odin for details a lot,” Loki remembered, voice soft. “He never answered.”

“It’s probably better that he didn’t. I’m not sure how I would have dealt with it. Though I sometimes do still wonder what could have happened.”

“I don’t know,” Loki said. The glare he sent Heimdall, however, suggested otherwise.

Brunhild raised an eyebrow at him, giving him an expectant look.

“Later,” Loki mouthed.

They flanked Heimdall when they left, steering him to an unoccupied part of the ship.

“Did Odin order his death?” Loki demanded.

“No.” After a moment longer, Heimdall conceited: “It was a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding. The murder of one of his subjects was a misunderstanding?” Brunhild demanded.

“He ordered him to be removed from Thor’s presence so Thor would turn his attention back to his warrior training and, later, to finding a suitable match for the heir. He wasn’t supposed to be killed.”

“You suspected?” Brunhild asked Loki.

“Not then. Not for a long time. But when I impersonated Odin, I caught hints in his office.”

“Are you going to tell Thor?” Heimdall asked.

Loki pressed his lips together, considering the question, then finally said: “No. Let him grief the father he thought we had. It’s enough that he knows about the sister he kept from us, from him.”

~*~

Bruce sat up in bed, breathing hard. The dream had seemed so incredibly realistic and had left him strangely unsettled. He decided to get up and walk around a bit.

He stopped short when he saw Thor standing in front of a window, looking out into space. For a moment, he saw the younger, short-haired Thor of his dream overlaying the one actually there. He shook his head and the picture faded. “Hello Thor. Can’t sleep either?”

“No, I’m afraid there is too much going on for me to get proper rest. What about you?”

“I’ve been having strange dreams lately,” Bruce said. He missed the look Thor shot him. “Perhaps it’s from being in space, I don’t know.”

“Would... would you like to tell me about your dreams?”

~*~

“He’s starting to remember in his dreams.”

Loki didn’t even bother looking up from his book when Thor burst into his room. He probably should have considered he’d pick that habit up again. Perhaps he should have stayed on Sakaar. “Oh?”

“What am I supposed to do? Do I tell him? Or should I wait, see if he properly remembers on his own?”

“You know him better than I do.” After a moment, he placed down his book and looked at Thor. “Though personally, I would like to be told, told kindly, not to find out myself later.” They both didn’t mention that it was not a hypothetical advice but was based on personal experience.

“Could you talk to him?”

“We hardly know one another. It should come from you, from his friend.” Loki made the mistake of looking at Thor. Losing an eye seemed to have made his puppy eyes even more effective because he found himself saying: “I can answer questions if he has them after you talk.”

“Thank you, brother.”

He really should have stayed on Sakaar.

~*~

“Bruce? Do you have a moment?”

Thor seemed unusually unsure, the way he stood there, Bruce thought. “Of course I have time for you. Is something wrong?”

“I... It’s about your dreams.”

Bruce listened, stunned, to the tale Thor spun. About the friendship between a younger Thor and a young scholar, about the accident that had cut their relationship short. About him being – having been? – that scholar. He wanted to protest, claim that it had to be a prank, a joke. And yet he found that he couldn’t. What Thor told him fit exactly with the dreams he’d been having.

“Now what? What does this mean? And how long have you known?”

“I didn’t recognize you at first. Recognize that you’re his reincarnation, I mean,” Thor hurried to assure him. “Frankly, I wasn’t really paying attention to any of you when I came to Midgard for Loki and the Tesseract. You seemed familiar but I couldn’t really tell why. When I realized...” He shrugged. “It was obvious you didn’t remember. So I just didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to push another identity on you.”

“And now that I’m starting to remember? What does this mean?”

Thor shrugged again. “Whatever you want it to. I just... Like you said, you’re starting to remember. And I figured you deserve to know. But it doesn’t have to mean anything. I know you and Natasha-” He stopped short, not wanting to think about it further.

Bruce made a split-second decision. “There is nothing between me and the Black Widow, not anymore. And I might not have all memories of being this... this Aelffrith guy or if I’ll ever properly remember being him.” He ignored how Thor’s face started to fall at his words and instead reached out slowly to take one of his hands. “But we could... see where this goes. If what was between you and him could be...” He gestured at the two of them.

Thor squeezed his hand. “Sounds good.”


End file.
